3rd Party Candidates Pushing 20%

As the campaign goes on, more voters are running away from the two front-running candidates to other, much lesser-known, third-party candidates.

An Associated TV/Zogby International poll released last week showed McCain leading Obama 42 percent to 41 percent – leaving 17 percent either undecided or leaning to third-party candidates.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll had Obama with 47 percent to McCain’s 43, leaving 10 percent to mostly third-party candidates when only Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr and Peace and Freedom Party nominee Ralph Nader are included in the choices. As other third-party candidates are added to the mix, the disaffection from the presumptive Democratic and Republican party nominees grows.

Nader is polling between 3 percent and 8 percent in various surveys. Barr reaches as high as 5 points. Most polls have not given prospective voters the opportunity of choosing any of the third-party options and those that have included only Nader, Barr and Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party.

Excluded from all major polls to date are Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin or America’s Independent Party Candidate Alan Keyes. All of those options and others will be included in polling to be conducted this weekend by WorldNetDaily and Zogby.